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Perez Says Cadillac Must Find a Lost Second After Development Plateaus

His podcast comments follow a midseason leadership change and rival upgrades that have left the new works team struggling to score points.

Overview

  • Sergio Perez said on a recent podcast that the last few races have been "a disappointment" because Cadillac's on-track development has stalled and the team has not been improving.
  • Perez estimated the car is missing about one second of lap time that the team expected to find and said recovering that time would materially change Cadillac's competitiveness.
  • Cadillac made clear early-season gains that briefly put it ahead of Aston Martin, but Aston Martin's aero updates and Honda's power improvements have since produced a sudden lap-time advantage.
  • The team replaced Graeme Lowdon with Marcin Budkowski before the Dutch Grand Prix while reliability problems have limited progress and Valtteri Bottas' P13 in China remains Cadillac's best result so far.
  • Perez says he remains committed to building the project and views the rest of 2026 as crucial to closing the gap so Cadillac can start 2027 in a stronger position against Williams, Haas and the midfield leaders.